The ever increasing reliance on information and the computing systems that produce, process, distribute, and maintain such information in its myriad forms continues to put great demands on techniques for data protection. Simple systems providing periodic backups of a computer system's data have given way to more complex and sophisticated data protection schemes that take into consideration a variety of factors including: the wide variety of computing devices and platforms encountered, numerous different types of data that must be protected, the speed with which data protection operations must be executed, and the flexibility demanded by today's users.
FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a data protection system for use in a variety of computing environments, e.g., small business, enterprise, educational, and government computing environments. Such data protection systems typically provide functionality for one or more of: data backup, data recovery, data duplication and data archiving. Moreover, the data manipulated by such systems can include all manner of computer readable information including computer software, image files, text files, database data, and the like. Computing system 100 includes a number of computer systems such as servers 110, 130, 134, 138, 140, and 145 and workstations 132 and 136 interconnected by network 120 and/or directly connected with each other. Network 120 can implement any of a wide variety of well known computer networking schemes but is typically a local area network (LAN), an enterprise-wide intranet, or a wide area network (WAN) such as the Internet. Each of the computer systems typically include information such as system software, application software, application data, etc., that has some value to users of the computer systems and thus requires some level of data protection.
Information protection within computing system 100 is controlled and coordinated by software operating on master server 110. The software operating on master server 110 is the “brains” for all data protection activities and provides, for example, scheduling and tracking of client computer system backups and restorations, management of data storage media, and convenient centralized management of all backup and restoration activities. In the example illustrated in FIG. 1, master server 110 can also have one or more storage devices, e.g., tape drive 160 and optical storage device 170, attached directly to the server or through network 120 for backing up and restoring data from multiple clients. In support of such a data protection system, each of the data protection system clients (e.g., servers 130, 134, 138, and workstations 132 and 136) of master server 110 typically include backup and restore client software or agents. Such agents typically receive instructions from master server 110 and handle the extraction and placement of data for the particular client computer system. Together, master server 110 and the data protection agent operating on a client computer system can backup and restore files, directories, raw partitions, and databases on client systems. Such data protection software can also be used to archive and restore logical database data.
FIG. 1 also illustrates other possible components of computing system 100. In general, media servers 140 and 145 operate under control of master server 110. Data protection administrative functions are performed centrally from master server 110, and master server 110 also controls backup scheduling for each media server 140 and 145. Each of the media servers performs actual data movement operations (e.g., backup operations and restore operations) under direction from the master server, and the data remains local to the media servers and their respective storage devices. Thus, media server 140 is coupled to tape library 150, and media server 145 is coupled to disk array 180.
Variations on this basic scheme are well known in the art. For example, a master server and its associated media servers can be referred to collectively as a storage domain, and large networks may have more than one storage domain. A media server can share a storage device such as a robotic tape library with other devices such as its master server or another media server. Master servers, media servers, and storage devices can be directly connected to one another, connected to each other using a conventional network, or connected to each other using a specialized network such as a storage area network (SAN). Still other devices, such as SAN switches, SAN routers, storage appliances, and/or data movers (e.g., third-party copying devices) can be used in computing system 100. Finally, it should be noted that a master server can also operate as a media server and that master and media servers can treat themselves as data protection clients, e.g., they can backup and restore data from or to themselves.
Although one of the benefits of using a data protection system like that illustrated in FIG. 1 is the centralized control and administration of a relatively large computing system, the complexity of such systems can quickly outstrip traditional tools used to visualize and manipulate the components and activities of the system. For example, many prior art data protection systems utilize detailed lists describing pending and/or active jobs as well as system devices and there properties. While such lists can provide a great deal of information, it may be difficult for a user to navigate such lists to find the information they desire, particularly in large computing systems. Moreover, using such data lists, it may be very difficult to understand or appreciate the interrelations of system devices and the range of activities occurring throughout the system at a given point in time.
Accordingly, it is desirable to have flexible and feature-rich tools for visualization and management of data protection systems.